A Very Silent Auction
We invite you to take part in a fundraising auction in support of Hertford College, Oxford. On offer is a collection of art, memorabilia, and books, generously donated by members and friends of the College. All the proceeds will go towards supporting Hertford's students, its outreach work, and the life of the College.*
The auction is now live! All bids must be in by 1.30pm BST on the closing date.
How the bidding works
No one will know whether you have bid, or what you have bid on. The only exception is that the Development Office will know who has won what objects, and the prices they have to pay.
Rules: You can make as many bids as you like, which will represent your maximum willingnesses to pay, of any or all of the following kinds:
Simple bids: You can make one or more bids for a single object each. For example, you might bid £100 for the soap statue, and independently bid £150 for the bronze statue.
"OR" bids: You can also make bids of the form "I will pay £X for object A, or £Y for object B, or £Z for object C, or ...". In this case, at most one of these offers will be successful. For example, one OR bid might offer £200 for the soap statue or £300 for the bronze statue; it could win either statue, but not both. Similarly, an OR bid across several books can win at most one of those books. If you submit separate bids that cover overlapping objects, however, those separate bids can each win one object.
"Any book" bids: "Any book" is a convenient shorthand for an OR bid that places the same value on every book in the auction. If you bid £40 for "Any book", the auction may allocate you any one book at a price up to £40, but this bid will never win more than one book. You can also combine "Any book" with named books in the same bid: for example, you might bid £40 for any book but £75 for a particular book you especially want. The bid remains an OR bid, so it can still win at most one book.
Outcome: The auction computes competitive-equilibrium prices and allocations, specifically the unique lowest prices that balance supply and demand. You will be contacted by the Development Office about your winnings. Packaging and shipping costs will be covered by Hertford College.
For more background and why "truthful" bidding is generally the best strategy, see below. Paul Klemperer, Edwin Lock and Elizabeth Baldwin will be happy to answer any questions.
Items on offer
General items
Soap statue of Jim
A soap statue presenting Mirrlees in a dark business suit, rendered in a characteristic caricature style with an oversized, highly detailed head and expressive facial features. It is mounted on a rectangular plinth bearing his name in both Chinese and English.
Bronze statue
A bronze miniature sculpture from Jim's private collection, depicting a woman seated on a bench, mounted on a polished stone base.
Accompanied by a photograph showing Jim sitting on the full-sized public artwork on which the miniature bronze is based.
Artwork
A sketch of Jim Mirrlees by artist Yu Ji, donated by the artist himself.
Academic gown
Jim's academic gown, donated by Patricia Mirrlees.
Books
Leviathan
or, the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil
By Thomas Hobbes (1960). From Jim's library, signed.
Hobbes's Leviathan is one of the defining works of political philosophy, arguing for sovereign authority as the answer to disorder and civil conflict. Its account of human nature, obligation, and the state remains a touchstone for political theory.
The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo Vol. 1
Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
Edited by Piero Sraffa (with M.H. Dobb) (1962). From Jim's library, signed.
This volume contains Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, one of the central works of classical political economy. Sraffa's edition is renowned for its scholarly care and for placing Ricardo's arguments in their broader intellectual context.
Elements of Pure Economics
or, The Theory of Social Wealth
By Léon Walras (1954). From Jim's library, signed.
Walras's classic work sets out the foundations of general equilibrium theory, linking markets, prices, and social wealth in a single formal system. It is one of the landmark texts behind modern mathematical economics.
The Theory of Monopolistic Competition
By Edward Chamberlin (1956). From Jim's library, signed.
Chamberlin's influential book develops the theory of markets in which firms have some pricing power because products are differentiated. It helped shape modern thinking about competition, monopoly, and imperfectly competitive markets.
General Economic History
By Max Weber (1961). From Jim's library, signed.
Weber surveys the long-run development of economic institutions, from ancient societies to modern capitalism. The book brings together economic history, sociology, and Weber's distinctive interest in authority and social organisation.
The Principles of Morals and Legislation
By Jeremy Bentham (1948). From Jim's library, signed.
Bentham's foundational utilitarian text argues that law and policy should be judged by their consequences for human welfare. It remains a central work for moral philosophy, legal theory, and welfare economics.
India: The Most Dangerous Decades
By Selig S. Harrison (1960). From Jim's library, signed.
Harrison examines the political pressures facing India in the years after independence, with particular attention to regional, linguistic, and social tensions. It is a vivid contemporary account of a new democracy trying to hold together under enormous strain.
Philosophy, Politics and Society
Edited by Peter Laslett and W.G. Runciman (1962). From Jim's library, signed.
This collection brings together essays on political theory, social philosophy, and the relationship between institutions and values. It reflects the mid-century conversation between philosophy, politics, and the emerging social sciences.
Tribal and Peasant Economies
Readings in Economic Anthropology
Edited by George Dalton (1967). From Jim's library, signed.
This collection gathers readings in economic anthropology, covering production, allocation, trade, and money across non-industrial economies. It ranges from traditional subsistence and peasant communities to societies undergoing economic change and development.
Philosophy in a New Key
By Susanne K. Langer (1951). From Jim's library, signed.
Langer argues that symbolism is central to human thought, art, language, and feeling. The book became an important bridge between philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, and cultural theory.
An Economic History of England
The Eighteenth Century
By T.S. Ashton (1955). From Jim's library, signed.
Ashton gives a concise account of England's eighteenth-century economic transformation, including industry, trade, agriculture, and finance. It is a classic treatment of the background to the Industrial Revolution.
The Revolution in Philosophy
By Ayer, Kneale, Paul, Pears, Strawson, Warnock, Wollheim (1956). From Jim's library, signed.
This collection introduces the major movements in twentieth-century analytic philosophy, especially the turn toward language, logic, and ordinary usage. Its contributors include several leading figures in post-war Oxford philosophy.
Sovereignty
An Inquiry into the Political Good and the Nature of Power
By Bertrand de Jouvenel (1957). From Jim's library, signed.
De Jouvenel examines the idea of sovereignty and the growth of political authority in modern states. The book is a reflective study of power, legitimacy, and the limits of government.
Political Man
The Social Bases of Politics
By Seymour Martin Lipset (1963). From Jim's library, signed.
Lipset studies the social conditions that support democratic politics, including class, economic development, and political culture. It is a major work in political sociology and comparative politics.
The Trade Cycle
By R.C.O. Matthews (1959). From Jim's library, signed.
Matthews analyses business cycles and the recurrent fluctuations of economic activity. The book reflects the post-war effort to understand instability, growth, and macroeconomic policy.
Capitalism, Primitive and Modern
Some Aspects of Tolai Economic Growth
By T. Scarlett Epstein (1968). From Jim's library, signed.
Epstein's study examines economic growth among the Tolai of New Britain, in Melanesia, whose monetised society already had many capitalistic features before European contact. The book sits at the intersection of development economics, anthropology, and social change.
The Politics of Scarcity
Public Pressure and Political Response in India
By Myron Weiner (1963). From Jim's library, signed.
Weiner examines the interest and pressure groups of post-independence India — trade unions, business, agrarian movements, students, and others — and how a democracy reconciles their rising demands with scarce resources. It is a major study in Indian political development.
The Importance of Scrutiny
Selections from Scrutiny, a Quarterly Review, 1932–1948
Edited by Eric Bentley (1964). From Jim's library, signed.
This selection gathers essays from Scrutiny, the influential literary journal associated with F.R. Leavis and close critical reading. It captures a powerful strand of mid-century literary criticism and cultural argument.
Essays in Conceptual Analysis
Selected and edited by Antony Flew (1956). From Jim's library, signed.
This collection presents essays in the analytic tradition, using close attention to concepts and language to clarify philosophical problems. It reflects the style of mid-century British philosophy in which Flew was a prominent voice.
Chamber Music
Edited by Alec Robertson (1957). From Jim's library, signed.
This Pelican volume gathers contributors on chamber music and its repertoire, from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth. A companion to The Concerto and The Symphony, it is an accessible guide to listening, form, and the intimate scale of ensemble performance.
More about the Auction
Many of you will recognise that this auction is similar to a Vickrey auction—named after the Nobel laureate William Vickrey—but the multiunit version of the Vickrey auction does not find competitive equilibrium. Our auction is in fact a simplification of the Product-Mix Auction that Paul Klemperer (Oxford’s Edgeworth Professor of Economics) designed for the Bank of England in 2007-8 at the beginning of the financial crisis. The Bank still runs its version regularly, and has sold almost £400 billion of repos using it. (We expect to raise a little less!)
This version has been programmed by Prof. Edwin Lock, who (along with Prof. Elizabeth Baldwin) has been involved with Paul in the further development of the Product-Mix Auction.
For more on this auction, see this paper, or this 5-minute film published by the Guardian newspaper.
Equilibrium and "truthful" bidding
Each bidder's demand in this auction is captured by their bids, as described above. The auction will find the unique lowest competitive equilibrium prices. That is, it will find the unique lowest prices that balance supply and demand, assuming everyone has made bids that accurately reflect their true preferences. It will also allocate the goods according to competitive equilibrium.† It follows that if your bids accurately reflect your true preferences, you will be allocated whatever is best for you at the prices set by the auction: that is, whatever you would have chosen if you had known the final prices in advance. Moreover, you are unlikely to gain much, if anything, by choosing bids that misrepresent your preferences.‡ If any bidders are indifferent about whether, or what, they are allocated at the final prices, these ties are broken randomly.
Simple example: Suppose Paul bids £100 for the soap statue, and Lottie bids £150. Lottie wins: her bid is high enough to beat Paul's, and she pays £100. If Edwin also bids £125, Lottie still wins, but now pays £125. (With many OR bids, of course, the calculation is considerably more complex.) In this simple single-item case, if these bids are the bidders' true values, no bidder could have gained by choosing a different bid.
For more details, read this paper.
Why we are using this auction
The auction is designed to allocate the objects efficiently, not to maximise expected revenue. Auction payments do not have the tax benefits of gift aid, so those who feel they have not contributed enough are most welcome to make a separate, tax-efficient, donation*—but there is no pressure to do this; the auction will not tell us the willingness to pay that you stated.
Our rules mean:
- Those unable to be physically present can participate on the same terms as others.
- No one feels under any social pressure to participate. (And nor need anyone feel embarrassed by their bids showing publicly just how keen they are to support the College!)
- The auction keeps the prices paid private (as we prefer).
- The auction should be more efficient, i.e., achieve higher “social welfare”, than standard “silent” or “live” auctions.
Paul and Edwin would be delighted to discuss our rules further with anyone interested.
* Auction payments cannot be gift aided. You can make a separate donation by contacting the Development Office at development@hertford.ox.ac.uk or you can give here: https://www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/support-us.
† It is a theorem that competitive equilibrium exists in this case, even though the goods are indivisible.
‡ If you only want to win one object, you cannot gain by misrepresenting your preferences. If you want to win more objects, you are welcome to ask Edwin at edwin.lock@kcl.ac.uk or Paul at paul.klemperer@nuffield.ox.ac.uk for advice.